Mariners’ Cal Raleigh on verge of Mickey Mantle’s switch-hitting MLB record, but with very different left-right splits originally appeared on The Sporting News
Cal Raleigh is on the verge of joining Mickey Mantle in MLB history, and then potentially passing him soon after.
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The Seattle Mariners’ star catcher has 53 home runs this season. The Yankees legend holds the MLB record with 54 home runs in a single season by a switch-hitter.
Raleigh has been on track to break Mantle’s mark, and now he’s on the precipice.
Maybe the most interesting thing about the chase, besides the fact that no one was predicting a 50-HR season for Raleigh, is how they each got to their number.
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Mantle hit an overwhelming number of his home runs in that season as a left-handed hitter.
That year, 1961, featured Mantle hitting 43 out of the park from the left side and 11 from the right.
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Raleigh this season has hit 33 homers lefty and 20 righty.
Switch-hitting is a magical art that seems like it should be pretty much impossible. To be an MLB-caliber hitter, let alone a star, while having to master hitting major league pitching from both sides of the plate? Brutal.
Yet somehow, rare talents like Mantle or Raleigh come along and prove it can be done.
Raleigh does it while catching, too, one of the most demanding positions in sports.
It has all added up to a special season, and Raleigh can put the cherry on top of it all by passing Mantle and standing alone on the switch-hitter single-season home run list.
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